Do all of the Atomos Recorders Share the Same Drive Caddys?

[Dan Brockett]

Hi all:

I have owned and used a Ninja Blade for almost three years now, it is one of the easiest to use, most reliable and innovative pieces of gear I have ever owned, I am very happy with it. Moving into the 4k world now though, I will be renting and probably eventually buy a Ninja Inferno for my Canon C200 since it looks as if the upcoming XF-AVC firmware update will offer no image, bit-rate or data rate improvements over the existing .MP4s.

Assuming I am using approved drives (Samsung EVO 850s) in my Blade, can the same drive caddys be used in the Ninja Inferno? Do you have to reformat the drive from the Blade to use with the Ninja Inferno, then reformat again when you go back to using it with the Blade?

[Nate Haustein]

I'm not 100% on this, but my older Ninja Blade caddy design doesn't fit into the Shogun. If you switched to the newer Caddy II design, they would work in both.

[Dan Brockett]

Originally Posted by Nate Haustein

I'm not 100% on this, but my older Ninja Blade caddy design doesn't fit into the Shogun. If you switched to the newer Caddy II design, they would work in both.

Good to know Nate, thanks for your post. I was hoping they were interchangeable but that is too much to ask in 2017, it seems like manufacturers just change stuff for the sake of changing stuff. So I'll have to have two sets of caddys.

[Nick Haman]

Well, if you're renting, chances are the Inferno will come with at least one caddy - and if they're a friendly rental place, they might give you a few more if you ask. Where I am, if you rent a camera it comes with the media to record onto as well, so I assume a monitor/recorder would have the same in the pack.

Then if/when you buy your own, as far as I know they come with a caddy in the box, so just mark which caddy is for which monitor and you're good to go.

[Jonathan Levin]

+1 for Nate’s response.

From what Ihave read, the caddy that comes with the blade is not forward compatible to new atomos units. The caddy 2 is forward and backward compatible between ninja blade and newer units.

[Jeff Pulera]

To the best of my knowledge - and I sell Atomos products at work here - all current Blade and Shogun units should be using the SAME Master Caddy II drive trays.

The original Caddy units (plastic clamshell housing for your drive) for the original Ninja only had a slot down one side. Later Atomos units went to the Master Caddy II design, which is same size but has alignment slots down both sides.

My old Caddy with single slot does not fit newer Atomos units that need two slots, but Caddy II trays will fit into my old Ninja, being backwards-compatible.

So, using any current Blade or Shogun model, the included Master Caddy II trays should be swappable and also not require reformatting.

Thanks

[Jonathan Levin]

Hi Jeff.

Thanks for that.

The Master Caddys that came with my Ninja Blade kit. It definately looks different than than the master Caddy 2. Mine have a slot on the left and right sides that run the length of the caddy, and is about 1/16th" high.

But when I went to B&H photo and looked up Master Caddy 2, it looks like there is only a slot on the right side. Take a look at the enlarged photos on their site:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...2855/KBID/3801

So either the photos are wrong, or their product description.

And this is what I found from Atomos:

https://support.atomos.com/hc/en-us/...-Master-Caddy-

[Jeff Pulera]

B&H pic is the OLD Caddy with single slot. I have an original, first-gen Ninja here and just checked, the slot in Ninja only has the groove on the right side, as does the Caddy. Of course the Caddy II units slotted on both sides will work because the extra slot in the plastic Caddy makes no difference to my Ninja.

I just did a Google search of Master Caddy II and found other vendors and their photos DO show the slot on the left side as well, as it should be.

No worries.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jonathan Levin]

Thanks for the clarification Jeff! Why is nothing easy?

JL

[Christopher Young]

There is now a new short SSD Caddy #3 for the new Atomos 5" 'V' recorder. Looks like it has the twin slots.

Chris Young